Wireless

Google’s admission that its Street View mapping project violated people’s privacy should serve as a wake-up call to consumers about how easily their personal information can be tapped, according to a leading computer security expert.

San Jose is beefing up its free downtown Wi-Fi network in the hopes that speeds will soon be the fastest in the U.S. San Jose was among the first large cities to implement free wireless internet access to anyone downtown in 2004. Now that network is being rebooted.

President Barack Obama’s plan to nearly double the wireless spectrum available for mobile broadband and deliver high speed Internet to nearly every American within five years comes as nations in Asia have surged ahead, said one technology analyst.